


Band Of Lovers

by Iansthugmuffin



Category: Shameless (US)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Band, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Rock Band, Ian & Mandy friendship, M/M, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-11-24
Updated: 2014-12-20
Packaged: 2018-02-26 16:47:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,414
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2659208
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Iansthugmuffin/pseuds/Iansthugmuffin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ian Gallagher just wants to get through high school without anything too drastic happening, but two Milkovich siblings seem to have other plans.</p><p>~High school/Band AU~</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I don't really know where I'm going with this yet, but I've noticed a severe lacking of band AUs in this fandom so I'm contributing to the cause.  
> Beta'd by my fab friend, [Alex](http://thehighkingofnothing.tumblr.com)

The loud shrill of his alarm rudely brought Ian Gallagher back to consciousness. He groaned and sat up. Today was it, his first day of high school, and it would either be hell like junior high was, or it would be worse. And he really didn’t want to think about what could be worse.

Just then, his brother, Lip, walked into the room. “Hey man, you excited for high school?” Lip shot him a cocky smile.

Ian flipped his brother off before grabbing his clothes off the floor. After smelling them and distinguishing that they were clean, he put on a t-shirt and some jeans, then headed to the bathroom to attempt to comb and neaten his bright orange hair.

Lip followed him into the room, and put his hand on Ian’s shoulder. “Look you’ll be fine today alright? Just don’t act like a pussy. It’s only high school.”

Ian rolled his eyes. “Yeah, but high school where we live can be pretty bad, Lip.” Lip tilted his head and shrugged his shoulders in agreement. “Well, just try not to get beaten up too much.”

Ian punched him in the shoulder, because both of them knew that even though Ian had a pretty face, it didn’t mean he couldn’t fight, he was a Gallagher after all. Lip laughed. “Yeah, yeah alright. Hey, Fiona made oatmeal, it’s downstairs if you want some.”

Ian nodded and watched his brother leave the room, sighing, he grabbed his backpack and headed downstairs. It’s only four years, right? How much shit could possibly happen in four years?

*

It's loud, very loud. And it’s not like Ian wasn’t used to loud, he was. Growing up on the south side of Chicago you pretty much have to be. But this was a different kind of loud, it was the obnoxious kind that comes from hundreds of voices talking at once. Laughing and yelling, and oh god, how was he supposed to survive a whole year - no, four years - of this?

A hard shove to his shoulder brought him back from his self-pitying thoughts. He was still standing in the middle of the hallway and he had exactly seven minutes to a) find his locker and b) find his first class. Great.

Ian pulled out a crumpled piece of paper from his backpack where he had written his locker number, 304. He was surprised when he was able to spot it pretty quickly. Hurriedly, he walked over and began shoving his stuff into the locker.

“Gallagher, right?” Ian turned around to find a girl standing in front of him, slowly sucking on a red lollipop; her nearly black hair had a streak of purple in it, and she was dressed in a short skirt, boots, and a jacket.

When Ian made his eyes focus back on her’s, she had an expectant look on her face. “Well, you gonna answer my question, or are you gonna keep feeling me up with your eyes?”

Ian felt a blush creeping up his neck as he nodded. “Right, yeah, I’m Ian. Sorry.”

The girl smiled at him. “Don’t be sorry, I would be glad to have a handsome guy like you take me home.” She winked at him, and Ian rolled his eyes.

Girls always thought he was interested when really, he wasn’t. Probably never would be either, maybe in an alternate universe where the idea of pussy was better than cock to him, but definitely not in this universe.

The girl winked at him and started to walk away, Ian quickly called out to her. “Wait! What’s your name? You know mine, it’s only fair if I know yours.”

She turned back around and smirked. “Oh, Mandy, my name’s Mandy. See ya around, Ian.” She flashed him another smile before turning around and sauntering off to class.

Mandy. Where had he heard that name before? But then it slowly came to him. Oh, Milkovich. She was Mandy Milkovich. Almost everyone knew of the Milkovich family, they just didn’t know much about them, only that they were bad news. Granted, in the south side pretty much everyone is bad news, but they were worse somehow. That’s what he’d heard anyway, though he had never actually experienced Milkovich wrath. Mandy didn’t seem bad though, not yet…

Once again, Ian was torn away from his thoughts when a loud bell sounded in his ears. Shit, first period was about to start. He hurriedly grabbed his bag and ran to his classroom.

*

Ian didn’t know whether or not to feel relieved that it was lunch break. On one hand it meant that the day was almost halfway over, but on the other, it meant he had to find somewhere to sit. _That_  was the part he always dreaded. Although for once, it didn’t seem like that was going to be a problem, seeing as Mandy Milkovich was walking straight towards him with a big smile on her face.

“Hey! You want to come sit with me?” Ian looked around for a moment before shrugging his shoulders and nodding; Mandy grabbed his elbow and pulled him towards where she was sitting. When Mandy had said ‘me’, he hadn’t considered that she literally meant just her. He was surprised she was sitting alone, and didn’t have some sort of posse.

Mandy sat down and took a bite of her sandwich before motioning at Ian. “Well go on, sit.”

Ian swung his legs over the seat and began taking out his lunch. It was rather awkward at first, being as neither one of them had said anything, but Mandy quickly fixed that.

“So, how’s your first day been?” Ian looked up from his sandwich and shrugged. “It’s fine, I mean, I already have tons of homework.”

Mandy made an annoyed groan. “Yeah, they love to hit us hard with it right from the start.” She took a sip of her water before continuing. “So… you want to study together sometime?”

Ian internally groaned because he knew; she didn’t actually mean ‘studying’, she meant sex. He resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Instead he shook his head. “Look Mandy I know what you’re doing here.”

She tilted her head with an innocent and confused look on her face. “What am I doing?”  This time, Ian did roll his eyes.

“You want me to hook up with you, but I can’t. Okay?”

Mandy sat up a bit straighter. “And why the hell not?”

Ian sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. “Because, you’re not my type.”

Anger flashed across Mandy’s face and he quickly continued. “I mean, you’re not a… well... I’m gay.” Ian hated how his voice wavered a bit. It wasn’t like he was ashamed of his sexuality but coming out was still pretty fucking scary, especially in the south side.

There were a few tortuously long seconds of silence, in which Mandy’s face stayed completely neutral; finally, she shrugged her shoulders and took another bite of her sandwich. “Oh... Okay cool, whatever. We can still be study buddies though, right?”

Ian would be lying if he said he wasn’t a little bit, well, shocked by her reaction. “You mean you’re not... You don’t care?”

Mandy shrugged. “Of course I don’t care. Why the hell would I?” She gave him a smile and he couldn’t help but smile back, maybe she wasn’t so bad after all.

“You can still be my boyfriend though.”

“But, I just told you I’m..”

Mandy waved him off. “No, I mean, like… my fake boyfriend.”

Ian squinted. “What?”

Mandy sighed. “You pretend to be my boyfriend to keep the creepy guys away from me, and I pretend to be your girlfriend so no one suspects you’re gay. Unless you want the whole school and all of the south side to know?”

Ian gave her an exasperated look, Mandy just laughed. “It’ll work out great, trust me. And it’s not like I expect us to hold hands and kiss and stuff, at least not at first.”

She winked at Ian and he rolled his eyes. “Alright, alright, sounds like a plan.” He smirked at her and she grinned.

“So you’ll let me come to your house to study after school then?”

“Sure. Although, we don’t really have anything to study for yet.” Ian pointed out.

Mandy rolled her eyes. “Okay fine, let’s  _do our homework_ together. Studying, homework, it all means the same thing.”

Ian looked up from his sandwich and gave her a knowing smile. “Right, so sex?”

Mandy gently shoved his shoulder with her hand. “Usually it does, for me anyway. But I’ll make an exception for my boyfriend.”

Ian couldn’t help but laugh at that. “You know that just sounds really weird, right?”

Mandy glared at him, but only for a second, then she was laughing right along with Ian. “Oh whatever, shut up.”

Once they had regained control of their laughter, Mandy looked over at the clock to check the time. “Oh shit! I have to get to class, sorry. See you after last period?” She asked, as she cleaned up her stuff and stood up.

Ian nodded at her, “Yeah sure, see you after.” Mandy smiled at him and grabbed her stuff, before bounding out of the cafeteria. Ian stared after her for a moment, before he shoveled the rest of his food in his mouth and rushed off to class.

 *

Brrrrring. Ian could not be happier to hear that sound, the final bell, he was free for a whole of seventeen hours. He quickly grabbed his bag and found his way back to his locker. Mandy was already standing there, but she was putting her stuff in the locker next to his so she didn’t notice him.

Ian smiled. “Hey, I didn’t know we were neighbors.”

Mandy looked up at him and smiled back. “Yeah that’s why I was standing here earlier, dumb-ass.” She lightly punched him in the arm and swung her backpack over her shoulder.

Ian slammed his locker shut and grabbed his backpack before following her out the door.

He was about to cross the street when Mandy stopped him. “Wait, I have to tell my brother I’m going back with you.”

A slight feeling of panic rose up in his throat. He hadn’t actually considered running into, or having to deal with, any of the Milkovich brothers. He watched as Mandy went running up to a guy with hair just as black as Mandy’s.

Mandy waved Ian over, and so he reluctantly walked towards them.

The first thing he noticed was the guy’s knuckles, which had ‘fuck u-up’ tattooed across them. He had ratty jeans and a faded t-shirt on, he was quite obviously a Milkovich. But he also had brilliant blue eyes that Ian couldn’t help but stare into.

“Hey, so this is my brother, Mickey.”

Ian nodded and extended his hand. “Hey, man, I’m Ian.”

Mickey, who looked increasingly annoyed by the situation, just shrugged. “Yeah okay, carrot-top. Look, I’m going home. But if you so much as touch my sister the wrong way, I’m gonna kick your ass.”

Ian gulped but nodded. Mickey his eyes at him for a moment longer, before turning and starting to walk away. He abruptly stopped, and yelled back at them. “Don’t forget a raincoat!”

Ian smirked, and Mandy looked disgusted.  “God, he is such an asshole, but whatever, he’s family.”

Looking away from Mickey and back at Mandy, Ian nodded in agreement, his own brother was a bit of an asshole too. 

Mandy extended her arm. “Well, lead me to your palace, fine sir.” Ian laughed, but took her arm in his and led them in the direction of his house.

Day one of high school down, and it was a pretty good day one.

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ian Gallagher just wants to get through high school without anything too drastic happening, but two Milkovich siblings seem to have other plans.
> 
> ~High school/Band AU~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't really know where I'm going with this yet, but I've noticed a severe lacking of band AUs in this fandom so I'm contributing to the cause.  
> -Updates every two weeks
> 
> Beta'd by my fab friend, [Alex](http://thehighkingofnothing.tumblr.com)

Ian and Mandy walked in comfortable silence most of the way back to the Gallagher home. It wasn’t necessarily a long walk, but it would have been tedious if they had tried to make small talk the whole time. Ian appreciated the silence, and by the content look on Mandy’s face, he assumed she did too.

Finally, they turned down the Gallagher’s street. Ian gently steered Mandy towards their house, which currently had his brother, Carl, standing on the lawn, aiming a gun with Lip standing next to him obviously trying to get the gun away from their younger brother. As Mandy and Ian got closer, they were able to clearly hear the conversation.

“Carl, I’m serious. Where did you get the gun?” Ian watched as his younger brother shrugged his shoulders and looked down at his feet.

Lip sighed and rubbed his hand through his hair. “Look buddy, I don’t even really care at this point. Just give me the gun and don’t go looking for it, or any others, again. Alright?” Carl nodded solemnly and slowly handed Lip the gun before traipsing back into the house.

Ian watched as his brother let out a breath of air, stuck the gun in his back pocket, and started to follow Carl into the house. Ian motioned for Mandy to follow him over to his brother.

“Hey, Lip.”

Lip turned around and lifted his hand in a small wave. “Hey man, how was school?”

Ian shrugged before tilting his head toward his new friend. “This is Mandy, we’re gonna study for a bit.”

Lip quickly bounded down the steps only to stop in front of Mandy. “Mandy... You’re a Milkovich right?”

Mandy took a defensive stance and crossed her arms. “So what if I am? You got a problem with that, Gallagher?”

Lip smirked and shook his head. “Nope. Not at all.”

Lip then turned towards Ian. “Listen, I need to dispose of this gun before our maniac of a brother finds it again. So can you let Fi know I might be a little late for dinner?” Ian nodded.

“Thanks, man.” Lip gave him a pat to his shoulder, and brushed past Ian and Mandy.

Ian watched for a moment as his brother disappeared down the street before turning to Mandy again. “Right, sorry about my brothers.”

Mandy shrugged. “Nah it’s fine. You had to deal with my brother, I deal with yours; seems like a fair trade. Besides, they don’t seem that bad.”

Ian let out a small laugh. “Yeah, they really aren’t, they can still be a major pain in the ass though.”

Mandy laughed. “I think that applies to all families. My brother isn’t quite the asshole he makes out to be either, although he’s close to it.”  

Ian hadn’t really gotten that bad of an impression from Mickey. He was just a big brother who wanted to protect his sister, Ian could definitely relate. Not only that, but the guy’s looks definitely didn’t hurt Ian’s first impression of him.

Ian quickly shoved that thought from his mind though; the chances of Mickey being gay were slim to none. Meanwhile, the chances of Mickey beating Ian up for so much as thinking he was gay, were really good.

Mandy brushed her hand over his shoulder. “Should we go in then?”

Ian nodded. “Yeah, sorry, I was just thinking about something I need to do later.”

Mandy smirked at him. “Or  _someone_ you need to do later?”

Ian blushed, Mandy had no idea how on point she was.

“Ha, judging by the blush on your cheeks, I’d say I got that right?”

Ian shook his head and laughed a little. “You know not everyone has sex on the brain all the time, Mandy.”

Mandy pretended to be shocked. “Really? How do you people survive?” She then laughed, and started up the front steps into the house. Ian followed her, upon entering, was greeted by at least ten little kids running around his house.

Mandy turned towards him. “Jesus, how many of you Gallaghers are there?”

Ian shook his head, “There’s only six of us, I don’t know who any of these kids are.”

Debbie, Ian’s younger sister, came running over to them. “Hi, Ian! How was high school?” She asked in her usual excited voice, and then she noticed Mandy. “Who are you? Are you Ian’s girlfriend?”

Ian smiled and shook his head. “No Debs, this is Mandy...My friend.” He turned and saw a small smile on Mandy’s lips. Ian got the impression she hadn’t been called someone’s friend in quite a long time.

Ian cleared his throat. “So uh Debs, why are there a ton of kids in our house?”

Debbie sighed. “Oh, well apparently my school got delayed a week because of maintenance or something, so Fiona said we should extend daycare an extra week.”

Ian nodded in understanding. “Ah, okay. Well we’re gonna go work on homework, but I need you to let Fiona know that Mandy is staying for dinner alright?”

Debbie smiled at him knowingly. “Yeah, sure,  _homework_.”

Ian rolled his eyes. “Mandy isn’t my girlfriend Debs, are you, Mandy?”

Mandy elbowed him in the ribs. “No, no I’m not his girlfriend. We’re just friends. Nice to meet you though, it’s Debbie right?”

Debbie smiled at her. “Yup i’m Debbie! And it’s nice to meet you too.” Debbie then spun around and went back to tending to the kids overrunning their household.

Ian started up the stairs and checked over his shoulder to make sure Mandy was following, which she was.  Ian led Mandy into his shared bedroom, and shut the door to block out the noise coming from downstairs.  He turned around to see that Mandy was already sitting on his bed looking around the room. Mandy’s eyes suddenly stopped scanning the room when they landed on the guitar sitting in the corner by the dresser. She looked back up at Ian.

“Do you play?”

Ian smiled a little. “I do, yeah. I’m not great though.”

Mandy promptly got up, grabbed the guitar, and handed it to Ian. “Go on, play it for me.”

Ian sighed and pretended to be annoyed, but really he was a little nervous. He hadn’t ever played for anyone before, not outside of his family anyway. He sat down on the bed and propped the guitar on his leg, and Mandy sat down next to him.

He strummed it a few times to make sure it was in tune, before getting his fingers in position to play. He decided to just mix together some different chords, since he didn’t really know any songs.

He started with the G chord and after a strums switched to C, and continued switching between some of his favorite chords. After a few moments he became lost in the music, as he usually did. He was interrupted by Fiona yelling up the stairs that it was time for dinner, he then noticed the throbbing in his fingers. He must have been playing for a good few minutes.

“Wow..” Mandy whispered next to him. Ian had almost forgotten she was there.

He blushed and ran his fingers through his hair. “I’m okay at it, I mean I only know a few chords that I learned online.”

Mandy turned and surprised Ian by glaring at him. “Okay? You’re ‘okay’? Really? Ian Gallagher, you are amazing. And no, you might not be playing ten different strings at a time…”

Ian cleared his throat. “Chords, they’re called chords.”

Mandy threw her hands up in the air. “See? I know nothing about this stuff but, I do know that sounded incredible. You know how to blend the music perfectly.”

Ian ducked his head a mumbled a quiet ‘thanks’, before getting up.

“We should probably head down for dinner, or Fiona will be pissed.”

Mandy nodded. “Okay. But I mean it, you’re really talented.”

Ian shrugged. “I’m okay Mandy, really, I’m not amazing. I’m mediocre at best.”

Mandy let out an annoyed groan. “You and my brother are going to be the death of me. Both of you think you are ‘okay’, when you’re actually incredible.”

Ian gave her a confused look. “Your brother plays? Which one?” Mandy shook her head. “No, not guitar. He plays the drums, and really well too. It’s Mickey, the one you met earlier.”

Ian just said ‘oh’ and continued towards the stairs, before Mandy grabbed his arm and stopped him. “I know!” She was smiling now, and Ian hadn’t quite figured out if that was a good thing or not.

“You know what, exactly?”

Her grip on his arm tightened. “You and Mickey, you guys could play together! Maybe if you heard how great you sound with someone else playing along, you would believe me when I tell you fuckheads how amazing you are.”

Ian laughed. “Mandy, I got the impression from your brother that he didn’t like being within two feet of me, let alone playing music with me.”

Mandy waved him off. “Oh don’t worry about him, I’ll take care of it. So what do you say?”

If Ian was being honest, the idea thrilled him. He had always wanted to play with other people, people who had the same passion for music as he did. He just never expected it to happen, but maybe this was his chance. “Yeah, alright. As long as your brother is cool with it.”  

Mandy shrugged. “He probably won’t be, not for awhile anyway. But he’ll warm up to the idea, trust me.”

Ian raised his eyebrows but Mandy just rolled her eyes. “It will be fine! Trust me. Now c’mon let’s go eat before your sister kills us.” Ian laughed and followed her down the stairs.

*

Dinner was, well, awkward to say the least. Ian could tell everyone was silently judging his choice of friend. Everyone that is, with the exception of Debbie. Bless her, she talked to Mandy non-stop about so many different things, it was hard to keep up.  Mandy didn’t seem to mind though, in fact she seemed relieved by the distraction.Then there was Lip, who was ogling Mandy from across the table. Ian quickly put a stop to that though, by kicking his brother in the leg and sending him a dark glare.

Fiona had a tight smile on her face, the one she got when she was being fake-friendly. She was probably going to have a talk with Ian later about the fact that he was hanging around with a Milkovich, Ian was dreading the inevitable conversation already. Carl, of course, paid no attention to the extra person at the table. He was too distracted by playing with his food, probably wondering how to blow it up.

Ian wasn’t really any help in relieving the tension either. He half-heartedly tried to engage both of his elder siblings in a conversation with Mandy, but that didn’t last long nor was it a success. Finally, everyone finished their pizza and went their separate ways once again.

In reality dinner had only lasted about fifteen minutes, but it felt like hours. Ian let out a sigh of relief and asked Mandy if she wanted to go back up and do their homework. Fiona butted in before Mandy could respond. “Ian, why don’t you just take Mandy back home? It’s getting late and I need your help back here.”

Ian knew she was lying, they didn’t have anything they needed to get done tonight. He relented anyway, figuring it was better to just let her have her way. “Oh, right. Okay, yeah I’ll walk you home Mandy.”

Mandy looked annoyed and pursed her lips at Fiona before following Ian out of the kitchen. Once they had retrieved Mandy’s backpack from Ian’s room, they headed back out into the now cooler, summer air.

“You’re sister really doesn’t like me.” Mandy said, breaking the silence as they walked back towards her house.  

Ian looked at her sympathetically. “Yeah, I’m sorry about that. I don’t know what her problem is.”

Mandy shrugged. “Whatever, I’m used to it, being a Milkovich and all. We get a pretty bad rep. But really, we aren’t that bad. It’s just our asshole of a father…” She trailed off and stopped in front of a brick house, her back stiffened a bit and she tightened her grip on her bag.

Ian looked up and noticed how un-welcoming it seemed. Not that any house in the south side could be described as ‘welcoming’, but this one just seemed hostile somehow.

“Well, this is me.”

Ian looked back at her and gave her a small smile. “Okay. I’ll see you tomorrow then?”

Mandy, who had been staring solemnly at her house, turned to look back at Ian and gave him a surprisingly bright smile. One that could only be described as a ‘Mandy smile’. “Yes! I will see you tomorrow. Goodnight Ian.”

Ian reached over and squeezed her arm. “Night, Mandy.”

 He stood there for a moment, watching as his friend walked slowly into her house. He couldn’t help but wonder what went on inside the dark house, was it like his own? Chaotic, but loving? Or was it a house of horrors? Judging by how Mandy had stiffened at just the sight of it, the latter was sadly more likely to be the case. Ian stared a moment longer, before turning around and walking back home, the faces of Mandy and Mickey Milkovich haunting him the whole way.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  



	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ian Gallagher just wants to get through high school without anything too drastic happening, but two Milkovich siblings seem to have other plans.
> 
> ~High school/Band AU~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't really know where I'm going with this yet, but I've noticed a severe lacking of band AUs in this fandom so I'm contributing to the cause.  
> -Updates every two weeks
> 
> Beta'd by my fab friend, [Alex](http://thehighkingofnothing.tumblr.com)

Mickey was sitting alone in his room, basking in the silence. After leaving Mandy with the stupid- but admittedly gorgeous- redhead she was studying with, Mickey had returned home to find his dad packing guns with his uncles. His dad, Terry, had simply looked at him for a moment before grunting out, “We’re going out to work a job, be gone three days.”

Every time Mickey’s dad and uncles left on a job, it meant freedom for Mickey and his siblings; so he was nothing if not thrilled to hear his dad would be out of town for a few days. Twenty minutes later finds Mickey here: sitting alone in his room, drawing.

Despite all of his father’s best efforts, and even Mickey’s own, to rid him of such, Mickey’s love for the arts was still deeply ingrained in him and he only ever got the chance to practice when his father was away, If Terry ever found out that his son was still drawing- or his other love, playing drums- Mickey would be a dead man. If being born with artistic talents wasn’t bad enough, Mickey was also gay- he knew what a world of hurt he would be in if his dad found out  _that_ about him, he might actually kill him.

Mickey stared down at his drawing, it was of Mandy of course, most of them were- Mickey loved to draw his sister, he drew her in all different variations, although, his favorite drawings of her were the ones where she was happy, Mickey only wished he could see that in real life.

The drawing he was currently working on depicted Mandy dancing and laughing, she looks so elated. Mickey doesn’t know where she’s supposed to be but that doesn’t really matter, she’s out of the South Side, she’s safe. Mickey looked over the drawing one more time, before shoving it under the bed and heading into the kitchen to try to scrounge up something to eat.

“Hey, assface.” Mickey smirked and looked over to where his sister was sitting on the couch.

“Hey yourself, douchebag.” Mandy looked up from her homework and smiled at him. “Where’s dad?”

Mickey went back to rummaging through the fridge, and shrugged. “Told me he’s going out of town, about three days he said.”

He heard Mandy let out a mumbled ‘good’. Neither of them talked about their dad, but it was a mutual understanding between all the Milkovich siblings that Terry was an evil prick they all hated.

Mickey grabbed two slices of bread that didn’t seem too stale, a knife, and some peanut butter. He plopped down next to Mandy and began smearing peanut butter onto the bread.

“Why can’t you do that somewhere else? You’re a distraction, and I’m trying to do this homework so I’m not up until Midnight later.”

Mickey made an amused sound. “I’m distracting you, huh? How’s me making a sandwich distracting?” He feigned an innocent look, but if her glare was anything to go by, Mandy wasn’t buying it.

“ _Y_ _ou know_ you’re a distraction. For one, you chew louder than anyone else on the planet. And two, I know for a fact that you’re going to turn on the tv.”

Mickey smirked.  “Oh, so it’s fact?”

Mandy kicked him in the leg. “Yes, and you know it too, asshole. Leave me alone.”

Mickey let out a huff. “You know you could always do that in your room. And besides, I thought you were doing that shit with orange top.”

Mandy’s face fell a bit. “I was, but his sister kicked me out, probably because I’m a Milkovich. And anyway, I’m not moving it’s comfy here.”

Mickey ignored that last part of his sister’s comment. “Mandy, you might be a Milkovich but you have all the good qualities, none of the bad shit. You’re the best Milkovich I know.”

Mandy looked at Mickey and gave him a small smile. “Thanks, Mick”, she said softly, and looked into his eyes. “You are too, you know? I know you don’t think so, but I don’t know how I’d get through half of this shit without you”

Mickey mumbled a ‘thanks’, and then cleared his throat. “Yeah okay, enough of the sappy shit I’m leaving.”

Mandy grabbed his arm before he could stand. “Wait, I need to ask you something.” Her face  suddenly grew serious, which Mickey had come to learn wasn’t a good sign.

“Oh fucks sake, what is it now?”

Mandy rolled her eyes. “Jesus, why do you always assume it’s something bad?”

Mickey raised his eyebrows at her. “Seriously? With you it  _is_ always something bad.”

Mandy considered it for a moment before shrugging. “Yeah, well this time it’s not.”

Mickey sighed and motioned for her to continue. “So, you know Ian?”  

Mickey squinted then asked. “The redhead?”

Mandy nodded and continued. “Yeah. Well, he plays guitar, and he’s good, like, really good.”

Mickey shrugged. “That’s fuckin’ fantastic for him.”

Mandy let out an exasperated sigh and Mickey immediately caught on. “What the fu- ..hell no! Just no, Mandy. I know what you’re getting at and no.”

Mandy let out a laugh. “Oh my god Mickey, I didn’t even tell you my idea! Just hear me out okay?”

Mickey grumbled but sat back and crossed his arms, looking like a pouting little kid. “Fucking fine. Just hurry the fuck up with this shit.”

Mandy turned towards him and began her rant.  “Okay so, like I said Ian is really good at guitar and he’s also a complete idiot and thinks he sucks at it.”

Mickey gave her a severely unimpressed look. “And what? You want me to come listen to him play because if some tough thug tells him he’s good, then he’ll believe it?”

Mandy rolled her eyes at him, yet again. “No, I want you to play with him, dipshit. If you both play together, maybe you’ll both realize I’m right when I tell you that you’re actually pretty good.”

Mickey’s eyebrows shot up again. “Why is it my job to show fuckhead that he does a good job playing the fucking guitar?”

Mandy shook her head. “It’s not. I just want you both to play together, I think it would be good.” Then she smirked at him. “Besides, he’s gay.”

Mickey’s eyebrows shot up so high this time, they almost flew off his face. “Oh so that’s what this is? You want me to get with this guy? What the fuck?”

Mandy must have realized this was the wrong thing to say because she immediately backtracked. “What? No. Jesus, Mick I don’t want you to practice with him because of that. I was just saying it to lighten your mood, obviously I shouldn’t have.”

Mickey snorted. “ _Obviously_. Look, if I just say yes to this, will you leave me alone?”

Mandy’s eyes widened for a moment before she smiled at him. “I knew you’d say yes. But sure, you can go. Just don’t forget about this and then get mad when I bring it up later.”

Mickey flipped her off before grabbing his food and standing. “No promises.” He said, earning a glare from his sister. He then made his way back to his room.

Despite his reaction, Mandy’s idea was rather appealing to Mickey. He rarely got to practice playing his drums because for one thing, he didn’t own any, so he always had to break into the school if he wanted to play. Another reason was that he didn’t dare practice when his dad was around, even though the drums were at the school it was still risky. Finding a time when he could actually go and practice was very difficult to do, in turn, Mickey was only able to practice once every few weeks.

He was starting to get excited about the idea now. He grabbed his jacket and headed to the couch where Mandy was. “Hey, I’m going out. I’ll be back later.”

Mandy gave him a knowing smile. “Okay, see you when you’re back then.” Mickey figured that she knew where he was going but he couldn’t bring himself to care. He finally had the opportunity, and motivation, to practice again.

 

**

 

Mandy was thrilled. Not only had she gotten her idiot brother to agree to playing drums with Ian, she also let it slip that Ian was gay. Despite her blowing her comment off as nothing, she said it so her brother could know he wasn’t alone, she  _needed_ for him to know. Mandy found out about her brothers sexuality about one year prior:

They were both drunk and playing truth or dare, this was shortly after their dad had been thrown back in prison for the umpteenth time. “Alright I dare you...to tell me how old you were when you lost your virginity”.

Mandy remembered the way Mickey had laughed. “That is so fucking lame, Mandy. But, fuck if I remember, my first time with a dude was last summer though. Man, that was good.” Despite their drunken states, they both realized that Mickey had just come out to his sister. His eyes widened and he began to panic a little.

“Oh shit... FUCK!”

Mandy put her hand on his arm to calm him.  “Mick, it’s fine I don’t give a shit.”

Mickey shook his head. “No… just don’t tell dad.  _Please_ don’t let dad know, he’ll fuckin’ kill me.”

Mandy nodded and whispered, “Of course” before trying to distract him with something else.

Ever since that night, it had been Mandy’s own personal duty to keep her brother’s secret safe. She hated seeing him terrified, she hated the way she knew he hated himself for something he couldn’t change. Most of all, she hated that they weren’t somewhere better, somewhere where they could feel safe.

Her phone that was lying next to her suddenly buzzed, startling Mandy from her thoughts. She grabbed it to find a text message from Ian.

_-So I’m guessing this piece of paper with a phone number scribbled on it was left by you Mandy?_

Mandy smirked, she had almost forgotten that she had shoved her phone number in between the strings of Ian’s guitar. She quickly saved his number and typed out a reply.

_You caught me. Hey so I talked to my brother about you guys playing together_

_-Already?! Shit, what did he say?_

_Jesus don’t get your panties in a twist! It took some coaxing but he seems relatively cool with it_

_-Okay if you say so_

_Hey you can trust me. Anyway I’ve been thinking some more about this…_

_-And?_

_Well a band has more than just a guitarist and drummer right?_

_-A band? I thought this was just a thing to do for practice? Good luck getting your brother to warm up to the idea of a band_

_It’s fascinating how you seem to think you know so much about a guy you only just met. But yes a band and I was thinking maybe we could have my brother Iggy on bass?_

_-Yeah I guess. But we would also need a singer if we’re going all out here_

_We aren’t ‘going all out’, these are just ideas I’m throwing around. I think this could be fun and I could always sing_

_-You sing?_

_Maybe… look it’s fine we can talk about it more later for now it can stay just you and Mickey_

_-Sounds good. Sorry but I gotta go I can’t waste too many minutes on this thing_

_Ok. See you tomorrow!_

_-See you_

Mandy shut off her phone and checked the time, it was nearly eleven. However, before she could become worried about where her brother was, he came barging through the door.

“Hey, Mick. How’d practice go?”

Mickey came around the corner and glared at her. “It was fine, you nosy bitch. Look, you got any smokes left? I’m out.”

“Yeah, here…” Mandy grabbed her pack from her bag and tossed them to her brother.

“Hey, so what do you think of having a band?” Mickey paused in lighting his cigarette to send Mandy an exasperated look.

 “Seriously? I just agreed to do this shit with Gallagher, and now you want me to go form some gay band with him?”

Mandy snorted.  “Fuck no, not a ‘gay’ band, just a band. I was thinking maybe we could get Iggy on the bass, and maybe I could sing? It’s just an idea…”

Mickey swiped his thumb over his lips. “Yeah well, It’s a dumb one. Can’t you just be happy that I’m doing this shit with freckles?”

Mandy sighed. “Okay, don’t get all worked up. And he does have a name you know? Ian?”

Mickey flipped her off. “I’ll call him whatever the fuck I want.” With that, Mickey went back into his room, slamming the door behind him as he went.

Mandy rolled her eyes at her brother’s behavior. Well, at least she had accomplished her main goal. The band thing... she was going to have to back off of that for a bit. She definitely was not going to stop bringing it up though, she’ll get these two idiots to agree one way or another, of course she will. She hoped.

  
  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> ~[My Tumblr](http://iansthugmuffin.tumblr.com)


End file.
